My verdict on SNP conference as a member with concerns

The party has enjoyed untold success over the past couple of decades, and while disappointment is not something unfamiliar, the crash from the high of that kind of success certainly is. Following a tumultuous 18 months, it felt like we had lost our footing. And quite understandably so, there have been multiple shocks to the system.

There was always going to come a time when that success was thwarted, as goes the cycle of public political opinion – every government in history, no matter how successful, has been met with an inevitable shelving at some point down the road. And it was always going to come for the SNP post a Nicola Sturgeon departure.

There has been a lot of criticism of the party, and panic among its ranks, about the uncertainty that has tainted its electoral viability. I myself have been critical, and I believe a lot of that criticism has been valid, but there is also something to be said about the nature of the course that the SNP have had to face.

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The departure of any leader, let alone one as popular with the general public as Nicola Sturgeon, would inspire chaos and instability – within any organisation. There are arguments to be heard about what goes beyond the allowances we make for that and what crosses the line into genuinely bad decision making – but we should also give due credence to that point.

There has long been a requirement of the SNP to perform above and beyond other parties, or indeed the independence movement generally, because there is an air of expectation that demands they prove themselves more so than their opposition. They are held to a higher standard, because both as the party of government you should be, and because as a movement, it is on us to convince the majority of the positive case for an independent Scotland. And while it is something to take pride in, it also means that when times are tough, they are especially so and there is little room for mistakes. As we have seen play out in real time.

With that being said, I have found myself at odds with the party pretty consistently in recent months, and approached conference weekend almost jaded by the direction that it seemed to be going in. And unsure of what the consequences would be on the ground for some of the more heavily criticised decisions in recent months. But it was finally an opportunity for the membership to regroup post-election and decide democratically on where this new era of the SNP should be headed. A welcome opportunity to untangle a difficult year, for everyone involved.

The SNP are no longer the electoral machine that they once were – and I think this has long been the party’s core sticking issue. It is famously rigid, especially in its internal processes and hierarchies. And while it worked for a time, not least because of the popularity of its leader, there has to be acknowledgement that it is simply unsustainable long term. There has to be a shake up across all levels of party governance and advisory roles, and I was heartened to see a fresh wave of talent being elected to the internal positions up for grabs over the weekend.

It’s why I had such reservations about John Swinney taking over as leader – with all due respect to him and his service to the country, it felt like a step back rather than a step forward.

I have felt largely vindicated on those reservations so far, but have to say I was impressed by his contribution this weekend. There are frustrations still very much at the forefront of my mind – for example the juxtaposition of his opening line at conference being around the importance of human rights while his appointed Deputy First Minister is openly against equal marriage and abortion. That felt somewhat hypocritical and is reminiscent of the wider gap between party progressives and the leadership.

But he is a refreshing realist above anything else, and instead of standing at the podium and selling the membership a dream, he spoke candidly and honestly, and utilised the decades of expertise he has acquired in a way that finally felt like the steadying of the ship that was promised by his candidacy.

(Image: Getty)

He spoke powerfully about the successes of an SNP Government that has been naturally lost among the noise – the expansion of free childcare, free prescriptions, free education, the Scottish Child Payment. The genuinely transformative impact that the SNP have had as the party of government, and why it is so important that – having had time to lick our wounds – we dust ourselves off and get back on the horse, before all of those achievements are left at the mercy of a Labour Scottish Government in 2026.

He managed quite poetically to harness the mood, collect it from the floor and inject new life into it at just the right moment. He spoke with such conviction that you were compelled to take it at face value – and I finally started to understand where the party might be going with his leadership.

Though this conference was rightly focused primarily on regrouping post election and finding a path forward, elsewhere throughout the weekend there were some really interesting policy debates that deserve air time, but will inevitably be lost among election strategies and Independence commentary.

Like Sunday’s motion to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution of an independent Scotland, proposed by the SNP Elgin branch and seconded by women’s rights campaigner and candidate for the SNP’s women’s convener post, Sally Donald.

The motion sought to “safeguard women’s reproductive rights against any potential political or legal regression” – inspired by the rollback of Roe vs Wade in the US and the ramifications of that decision for women and girls globally. Donald spoke powerfully from a place of personal experience, describing how her body has never been her own, but instead has been legislated on for her for as long as she has been alive. A speech that no doubt resonated deeply with the women in the room – and beyond.

It is policy like this that inspired me to join the SNP more than a decade ago. Despite what critics might be saying, the SNP to their core are a progressive party and have a progressive membership base. That has not always been well reflected, particularly in recent months, by the leadership – and they have and should be taken to task for that, but what this weekend proves is that the progressive SNP is alive and well.

However, to be taken seriously as a progressive party and to regain the trust of the progressive votes that we have lost, we need to heal the disjoint between what the party policy handbook looks like and whether or not we walk the walk in reality. I’ll use the appointment of Kate Forbes again as an example. We cannot one day pass a policy on the enshrinement of abortion into a Scottish constitution while we simultaneously have a parliamentarian appointed to the second highest office in the land who is vocally against abortion. It is okay to point out that those two things should be mutually exclusive for a party seeking credibility from progressive voters.

It is not difficult to see why trust has been eroded among those voters – the progressives that the SNP and the independence movement ultimately needs to win. What this weekend does prove is that there is a much clearer path to that success now than there was this time last week.

The course of action that the SNP choose to take in the next 18 months before the Scottish Parliament elections has ramifications far beyond the party itself. As we are now seeing play out in Westminster, Labour cannot be trusted to protect the hard-won freedoms that the people of Scotland enjoy – that we enjoy because of an SNP government.

If the party cannot get it together, and if John Swinney cannot inspire that, then the people of Scotland more generally will pay the price. There has arguably never been a more important moment for the SNP than now, and all eyes are on John Swinney to make it happen. He has had a positive weekend, and with a reinvigorated and resilient membership base who are evidently not for taking the loss lying down, it will be interesting to see how the polls start to take shape over the next few months.